HATTIEVILLE, Belize - Sitting quietly, acutely aware of his surroundings, a young Belize Defence Force guard stands watch over a construction site and the partially built walls of a new preschool.
Having joined the volunteer BDF three years earlier at 16-years-old, Pvt. Guzman considers himself to be a seasoned guard.
“It’s pretty quiet during the day, I get to enjoy the friendly environment,” he says about the worksite, “I enjoy coming to work.”
Looking out through the opening of his tent, he points at the preschool in progress and says, “… this will help a lot of children, it will let them be at school and learn a trade doing something good for their life,” he smiles and says “I’m happy to be a part of it.”
Pvt. Guzman, who volunteered to work security during the New Horizons exercise, says that he wanted “to observe how the U.S. military operates,” and he hopes that this joint exercise will integrate him more into the Regular BDF (which he someday hopes to possibly join in a few years) as they demonstrate the capabilities of the BDF in a joint environment.
The BDF security detail at each site has been vital to the New Horizons mission.
Soldiers from the Belize Defence Force have been leading the charge in providing round-the-clock teams to safeguard vital New Horizons assets at five construction site locations since exercise construction and medical equipment arrived at the Port of Belize, March 8.
The Belize Defence Force will lead 24/7 security details at each one of the five construction sites until the end of the exercise in late-June.